Cat News
Missing Cat Found in Owner's Suitcase
from the Associated Press
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) -- The last time cat-owner Kelly Levy saw her tiger-striped feline was before she took her husband to the airport. The 24-year-old came back to her house late Friday to find the bottom step, where Gracie Mae would usually be waiting, empty.
Levy tore the house apart looking for the 10-month-old tabby who had been spayed just days before. She and her dad took out bathroom tiles and part of a cabinet to check a crawl space and papered the neighborhood with "lost cat'" signs.
Then she got a phone call.
"Hi, you're not going to believe this, but I am calling from Fort Worth, Texas, and I accidentally picked up your husband's luggage. And when I opened the luggage, a cat jumped out," Levy recalled the caller saying, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
Rob Carter, of Fort Worth, told The Dallas Morning News for its online edition Tuesday that he made it home with the suitcase.
"I went to unpack and saw some of the clothes and saw it wasn't my suitcase," Carter said. "I was going to close it, and a kitten jumped out and ran under the bed. I screamed like a little girl."
Carter said that he eventually was able to get the cat to come out from under the bed.
"In the morning, I got close enough to see its collar and the phone number on it," he said. "So I called the number and got a hold of the crying wife of the traveler."
Gracie Mae had crawled into Seth Levy's black suitcase undetected, been put through an X-ray machine, loaded onto an airplane, thrown onto a baggage claim conveyor belt and picked up by a stranger.
Carter delivered Gracie Mae to Seth Levy and the tabby made the 1,300-mile trip home on an $80 plane ticket Sunday night.
Carter said that he considered keeping the cat before he knew she had a home.
"If I couldn't have found a good home, I would have kept it," he said. "We were going to name it Suitcase."
Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary
I have recently discovered an animal welfare organization that rescues and shelters blind cats. These cats are normally killed in
conventional shelters because of their disability. Many people don't want to adopt blind cats as they feel they will have limited
mobility and abilities. In fact blind cats function as well as 'seeing' cats and often are more active and explore more. If you
are considering a charity to give your well earned dollars to please consider The Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary. I can't
recommend this charity highly enough. They are helping cats that most other people and animal shelters don't consider or think
about.
In addition please buy a copy of Gwen Cooper's Homer's Odyssey. This book details Cooper's adventures of adopting and owning a
blind black kitty. Among his adventures was saving Cooper from a burglar who broke into their apartment and being stranded after
9-11 in their New York apartment. Gwen moved heaven and hell to get back to Homer and his two furry siblings. It is a quick and
meaningful read. It is available at all the large book retailers including Amazon.com. A portion of each sale goes to The Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary.
http://www.blindcatrescue.com/
Please vote for the Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary too at the Animal Rescue Site's $100,000 shelter challenge.
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/shelterchallenge.faces?siteId=3 Please vote every day.
http://www.catster.com/group/Friends_of_the_blind_cat_rescue_and_sanctuary-15192
Randolph, IA cats
The mayor of Randolph, IA was offering a $5.00 bounty to anyone who turned in a cat without a collar. The said cat would then be euthanized. Alley Cat Allies spearheaded the effort to change this mayoral decision..........